What ARE your leaders thinking? Although this question may be read with a wide range of meaning, a more important question might be “how are your leaders thinking?”  How your leaders take in and use information (i.e., their thinking and learning styles) has a direct impact upon not only what priorities they have, but the way that they approach the issues that they face. For instance, from one perspective a leader might consider efficiency, financials, technology, measurements, performance, and goals and objectives. Another leader facing the same issue might consider the competition, future trends, new concepts, and the long-term strategy. A third leader in the same situation would focus their attention upon the customers, communications, and team and relationship implications. A fourth leader might attend primarily to quality, risk reduction, resources, control, timing, and policy when developing an approach or procedure.

Do your leaders make decisions based upon rational thinking, the impact on people, or because the ideas just seemed to make sense? Based upon research, and validated globally across industries, Whole Brain systems describe the preferences that people have in their thinking styles. Naming a thinking style is only a small part of the equation, however. Using the HBDI, developed by Herrmann International, your leaders will gain valuable self-insight into their thinking style, the other possible ways that people think, interpret information, and communicate, and most importantly, how to work with others who think differently than they do.

Thinking styles, and working effectively with a variety of different preferences, is an important part of being a leader. If everyone had the same thinking style preference, important considerations may be overlooked or discounted. Consciously incorporating thinking styles diversity and using it effectively is an important aspect of leadership.

The brain is a unique organ, specialized, situational, interconnected, iterative, dominant, malleable, and whole. The HBDI is based on a physiological model of the brain that describes how we do what we do. The HBDI is an important part of leadership development because it acts at the core of the leader – their brain. Leadership development best practices emphasize that self-knowledge is a key aspect of effective leadership development. The HBDI gives leaders the opportunity to see who they are at the most fundamental level, and develop their leadership qualities from the inside out.